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NEW AND PRACTICAL WORKS 

ON 

POULTRY. 



THE AMATEUR'S MANUAL 



ON 



Decile Matte ef loroiMrej Fowls, 

By I. K. FELCH, IsTatick, Mass. 
Published in Sept. 1877. PRICE, 75 cents. 

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Publishe| 

The genero 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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Slielf- 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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8 Manual 
nenlioned 



FANCIEE'S MATING 



—OF— 



being a second volume to the Amateur's Manual, and to say that I hav« 
the assistance of J. Y. BICKNELL in the Turkey and aquatic divisions, ii 
enough to ensure the information as valuable. 

It will be a book of valuable reading matter for all lovers of Poultry, 
and will soon be ready for distribution. Price 50 cents. 



THE 



BEEEDING AND MANAGEMENT 



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BY 



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K. FELG 

NATICK, MASS. 




HYDE PARK: 

PRESS OF THE NOEFOLK COUNTY GAZETTE. 

1677. 

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Copyrighted by 
I. K . F E LC H , 

1S77. 



P^RT I. 



INCUBATORS 



AND THE 



AETIPICIAL REARING OF CHICKENS, 



That poultry husbandry has become one of the 
largest of our productive industries, is now quite 
generally appreciated and admitted. 

Its capabilities, however, have not yet been 
dreamed of, for when the artificial hatching and 
rearing of chickens in large numbers have been 
proved practicable to the people generally, there is 
actually no limit to the extension of this industry. 
The demand for early chickens among the hotels, 
restaurants and wealthy families of our large cities 
is immense, and it is constantly growing. The 
supply is entirely inadequate even at the highest 
prices, and the field for remunerative labor in this 



4 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

direction is very broacL There are thousands of 
persons of limited means, who, provided they were 
supplied with a perfectly reliable incubator, could at 
a very small outlay of capital and labor add to their 
means very materially and surely. Such labor as 
would be required in this industry would be of the 
very lightest, and could be performed easily by 
women and even children. In fact, we know of 
nothing else among the varied interests of rural life 
that could be made so available to all as the artificial 
rearing of domestic poultry. In addition to its use 
in hatching chickens for market purposes simply, an 
incubator is a prime necessity to the fancier and 
poulterer. 

Who has not desired to get out his chickens early, 
yet has been disappointed either by the lack of sit- 
ting hens, or by the method of sitting of those he 
had secured. Who has not lost many clutches of 
eggs from his choicest birds ; eggs that to him were 
almost priceless, because he had no incubating hen 
or machine to receive them at the critical time. 

In our opinion the autumn exhibitions and sales 
might be vastly enriched by great numbers of early 
hatched, well developed birds, provided a perfectly 
practicable and reliable incubator were available. 



or Thorough-hredsfor Practical Use. 5 

It is not our intention to devote much space to a 
review of all that has been done in the way of 
artificial incubation abroad and at home. Neither 
is it our design to describe the many clap-trap 
machines that have been invented and sold in this 
country to the great disgust of the buyers. We 
venture to say there are more worthless incubators 
scattered throughout the countryj packed away in 
garrets or cellars, and held by their disappointed 
owners as so much trash than there are of all other 
condemned machines. 

That such is the case, proves there is a want for a 
good and reliable incubator among all classes, and 
it also proves that such has not yet been supplied. 

The fact is, no incubator is of anv value what- 
ever, unless it contains within itself every principle, 
every phase, and every condition that nature fur- 
nishes for the incubation of the es:s and the sue- 
cessful hatchin<y of the chick. 

In order that such an incubator should be created 
it is first necessary that the egg and the embryo 
should be studied in all the stao-es and wants of its 

o 

existence. 

The egg is one of the most beautiful of created 
things. It is, although apparently so simple, won- 
derfully complicated yet entirely complete. 



6 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

To the careless observer it consists of but two 
elements within the shell, the yolk and the surround- 
ing albumen. Yet the careful student finds within 
these a multiplicity of features and conditions quite 
beyond the vision of the ordinary experimenter. 

Now to study an ^gg requires a trained hand and 
eye. It also requires in the student, a knowledge of 
anatomy and a skillful manipulation of the microscope. 

As the embryo chick advances in growth and 
perfection, it is necessary that every phase and re- 
quirement of its embryohood should be studied and 
understood. 

Professors Huxley, Agassiz, Foster, Balfour, 

Bischoff, Dollinger, and Karl Ernst Yon Baer, 

have devoted years to the study of the Qgg^ and to 

their scientific labors we owe most of our knowledge 

■ of embryology. 

Their studies were confined entirely to the phy- 
siological life of the chick, and none of them pur- 
sued their labors to an utilitarian end ; that is, they 
worked as scientists, not as inventors. 

We have said that no incubator is of any value 
unless it contains within itself every condition that 
nature furnishes for the successful hatching of the 
chick. As a rational deduction from this, no one 



or Thorough-hreds for Practical Use. 7 

can invent a successful incubator, unless he fully 
understands what those essential conditions are. 

It is very rarely that a scientist is a practical or 
mechanical inventor ; the requirements of the two 
are so radically opposite, that they are not, as a rule, 
combined in the same individual ; fortunately there 
are exceptions to this rule. 

Among the many incubators that we have exam- 
ined, we take great pleasure in naming that invented 
by Mr. Edward A. Samuels of Waltham, Mass, 

This gentleman is well known throughout the 
country as a naturalist, and one of his books, the 
Ornithology and Oology of New England, is regard- 
ed as standard authority. For many years he has 
been a close student of nature, and his schooling in 
fhis direction would apparently fit him for a stud}' 
of any of the phenomena of animated life. 

Some eight years ago he commenced the study of 
the egg and the chick, and to facilitate his work, he 
made an artificial incubator. It was of course a 
rude affair, but it would hatch seventy-five per cent, 
of the fertilized eggs placed within it. 

The idea at that time, of inventing a machine fin- 
general use, never, we believe, occurred to him. In 
fact, until recently, he has made no eftbrt in this 




THE ECLIP^: 



EDf ARD A. SAMUELS, Patentee and lanufactnrer, 

WALTHAM, MASS. 

Fig. 1 gives an illnstration of the front and the boiler end. The doors 
open clown to permit the drawing out of the egg drawers. The battery, 
clock vrorls and lamp ia actual use are arranged as here shown. 



or Thoroiigh-bredsfor Practical Use, 9 

line whatever, and we believe, ^ye were among the 
very first to suggest it to him. In compliance with 
this hint, Mr. Samuels has, in the course of his 
studies and experiments to perfect a machine practi- 
cable for common use, used many thousands of 
eggs, and constructed almost innumerable forms of 
incubators ; the result is he has elaborated a machine 
that is perfectly reliable and practical, and mthal 
one that follows nature as closely as can be done. 

In an incubator it is essential, first, that it shall 
maintain automatically a uniform heat, which shall be 
so controllable that it may be regulated, or rather 
self-varying, according to the advancement made by 
the chick. Second, it shall furnish its own ventila- 
tion and moisture. 

These are absolutely all the essentials in a ma- 
chine to be successful. 

To ascertain the requisite degree of heat, Mr. 
Samuels took numerous observations of the temper- 
ature of the upper surface of the egg beneath 
sitting hens, three times daily through their whole 
terms of incubation. 

His thermometer was one of the most sensitive 
obtainable, and though the hens were sitting under 
various conditions, the average heat in the different 



10 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

specimens was about the same, and was greatest at 
the commencement of incubation and least at the 
close. A fact, by the way, quite in conflict with 
the theory held by many persons both in this coun- 
try and in Europe. 

The proj)er degree of heat ascertained, it was 
necessary first to secure a uniform circulation and 
distribution of it ahove the eggs. All who have had 
any experience with incubators know their heat is not 
radiated uniformly upon the eggs, those in the mid- 
dle being quite hot, while those on the edges are 
almost cold, too cool in fact to permit their 
hatching. 

In order to secure the proper uniformity, a great 
many forms were made, tested, and cast aside until 
at length the best form was arrived at. All this 
required a large outlay of time and money, but 
nothing was permitted to stand in the way. 

After the right degree and uniformity of heat 
were attained, it was necessary that it should be 
made controllable automatically, or so self-regula- 
ting, as to follow the various needs of the embryo 
chick ; that is to say, it was to be so made that it 
would not only regulate its heat automatically for 
the time being, but it would follow the process of 



or Thorough-breds for Practical Use, 11 

incubation, giving less and less heat as the time 
drew near for the chick to be hatched. 

After many disheartening trials, he, by the com- 
bination of a small electric battery and a clock-work, 
finally succeeded in securing this important result. 
The moment the temperature within the incubator 
reaches a certain point, an electric circuit is closed 
by an ingenious pyrometer attachment, and this 
operates on an electro magnet, the armature of which 
instantaneously moves to the magnet ; in thus mov- 
ing it releases the escapement of a clock movement, 
causing a ventilator to open and the flame of the 
lamp which furnishes the heat to be reduced to the 
minimum point. When the heat in the incubator is 
sufficiently reduced, the electric current is broken, 
the ventilator closes, and the lamp again burns up 
brightly. This is absolutely automatic, and it is 
strictly reliable. 

To secure the proper ventilation and moisture, 
Mr. Samuels tried many plans, rejecting all until a 
successful one was obtained. 

To show how thoroughly the work has ])een done 
we will give as an illustration, a single incident. He 
had perfected his incubator, as he at one time sup- 
posed, had secured a perfectly automatic control of 



12 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

it J and the heat and moisture were of the proper 
degree, yet the chicjks did not hatch in anything 
like the proper percentage. A few came out, but 
most of them died after the fifth day of incubation o 
At that time perfect ventilation of the eggs had not 
seemed requisite, and it was only after proving be- 
yond a doubt that it was at and after this stage of 
the embryo's existence that pure air should be sup- 
plied in proper quantities, that an entirely new 
model was tried and adopted. 

The blood of the embryo chick is oxygenated 
through the myriads of pores in the shell of the 
Qgg"') the sitting hen often rises to turn her eggs, 
and whenever she moves fresh air has access through 
her feathers to the embryos beneath her. Mr. Sam- 
uels tested chemically, the air in one of the incuba- 
tors, (such as I have said he discarded,) full of eggs^ 
and found carbonic acid gas in deleterious quantities , 
the embryos had died from imperfect aeration of 
their blood. 

The apparatus, that -he has at last perfected is, as 
we before stated^ automatic, and it is so perfect in 
its Yv^orking tlmt he has hatched recently as high as 
eighty-five per cent, of the fertile eggs placed in 
it. We may therefore call it a success. 




On 



OR 



Fig, 2, Side View. 

EDWARD A. SAMUELS, Patentee and Manafactui-sr, 

WALTHAM, MASS. 



14 Breeding and Management of Poultry , 

It is as we understand now patented, and the 
manufacture of it has commenced. It can be sold, 
as we are informed, for $60.00 for an incubator 
large enough to contain three hundred eggs. 

This price, as it includes the incubator, battery, 
pyrometer, lamp, and everything complete, is very 
low, and as it is within the reach of all we predict 
for it a large sale. 

The labor and supervision required in running it 
are quite limited. The clock work needs winding 
up once in two or three days, three turns of the key 
being sufficient. The lamp needs filling once in 
twenty-four hours. The battery requires once in a 
fortnight or so, the addition of a gill of water accord- 
ing to the evaporation. There is no turning or 
sprinkling of the eggs needed. 

It may be readily seen from this that the care 
required, is hardly greater than would be necessary 
in managing a single sitting hen, and we doubt if 
there is any possibility of anything like a successful 
incubator being invented that would call for less 
attention. 

That the successful hatching of chickens artificially 
has been proved beyond a doubt, and that they may 
be reared in large numbers in a limited space with- 



or Thorough-hreds for Practical Use, 15 

out the assistance of mother hens, Mr. Samuels, and 
many others have also demonstrated. 

To raise the many chickens hatched in his incuba- 
tors in the course of his experiments, Mr. Samuels 
constructed a house 90x15 feet in dimensions, and 
of a heio'ht of nine feet at the front and five feet at 
the rear. It faces the south, and the front and two 
ends are of glass, the roof a lean-to shingled, and 
the back clapboarded. 

In this house he placed a green-house boiler lai'ge 
enough to heat it, and he adjusted the hot water 
pipes which were four inches in diameter so that the 
young chickens could brood beneath them. Of 
course the pipes were wrapped with blanketing, or 
other woolen material, and above them was fixed a 
board covering from which were jjendant strips of 
bufialo skin or woolen cloth for the chickens t>o 
creep under. When they were brooding beneath 
the pipes they were as warm and comfortable as 
they could possibly be beneath a hen. The cost of 
house, boiler, and everything complete was about 
$500.00 The proper degree of heat being thus 
provided, all they required was absolute cleanliness, 
a variety of food, a good space of clean gravelly 
sand for their walk, and there was no difiiculty in 



1 6 Breeding and Management of Poultry^ 

raising many hundreds in the dead of winter, in the 
small area we have named » 

An absolute necessity to chicks reared thus is that 
one meal a day, of green food, should be furnished. 
To supply this he sowed oats and winter rye in a 
part of his cliicken house, and as fast as it Y/as used 
another seeding was made. 

In this house Mr. Samuels had at one time seven 
hundred chickens of all ages, from those just hatched 5 
up to pullets laying and even wanting to sit. 

When we state that these chickens were brought 
up in flocks of 30 or 40, in pens 6x15 feet to each 
flock; that they had never been out of these pens, 
and that they were in perfect health, we think it is 
shown conclusively that the thing is practicable and 
that any one may do it under the same conditions. 

All poulterers have heard of the mammoth estab- 
lishment of Mr. Baker in New Jersey in which 
thousands of chickens are reared artificially for the 
early market, and many are acquainted with the 
methods practiced in England and Continental 
Europe. Now it is not every one who has the 
means or the inclination for entering into the busi- 
ness on these large scales, and we would say here 
that the tiling is practicable in as small a way as one 



or ThorougJi-bredsfor Practical Use. 17 

wishes. All that the chickens require is to be kept 
absolutely clean, that they shall have a warm place 
to brood in whenever they wish, and their food shall 
be nutritious and varied. 

We have known of instances where hundreds of 
chickens have been reared during a winter when the 
only brooding facilities afforded them consisted of 
several wooden boxes lined with flannel or woolen 
carpet or old buffalo skin, the boxes being placed 
near a stove at night, and in severe weather. There 
are many farmers who. rear all their spring chick- 
ens in this way, and some of them sell several 
hundreds of dollars worth every year. There is 
absolutely no obstacle to the successful prosecu- 
tion of this work, provided always that the chickens 
are given the proper treatment. If they have 
warmth, cleanliness, freedom from vermin, gravelly 
sand to run on, a variety of food and a daily supjply 
of either chopped grass, oats, cabbage or lettuce, they 
may be raised in any number desired. These con- 
ditions are absolutely essential. 

There can never be an artificial mother invented 
that will equal the mother hen, and when we con. 
eider the many failures of the hen to hatch her eo-o-s 
in the early part of the season, we can see of wJiat 



18 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

value such an incubator as we have described will 
be, for it makes every hen, inclined to sit, of far 
more than double her original value, for she can be 
furnished chicks to rear of double the number she 
would be able to hatch, and in cases of failure to 
hatch, a full brood of twenty to thirty chicks can bo 
supplied for her to rear. There is no artifical heat 
to compare with the breast and feathers of the hen. 
In leaving this chapter of our subject we oifer in 
substance our Essay before the Massachusetts State 
Board of Agriculture, It is our idea of practical 
poultry keeping, and we believe that if its instruc- 
tions are heeded, no better guide to the Farmers 
and Poulterers of the land, can be given. The 
colonization system as therein advised will be found 
the best one to follow, and it adapts itself to the 
small or large operator alike. 



PA.RT II. 



MAGNITUDE AND MANAGEMENT; 



AND 



discussion of the board upon the 

sa:me. 



Although the poultry interest of the uatiou has 
been considered of minor importance, yet when we 
investigate, we find the egg and poultry product to 
be much larger than any other agricultural product 
or industry, and we become amazed at the amount 
of wealth annually accumulated by practical poultry 
keeping. 

The census for 1870 informs us that the cotton 
crop was 3,011,996 bales ; the corn crop, 761,000,- 
000 bushels ; the wheat crop, 288,000,000 bushels ; 
the value of all the cattle, sheep, and swine slaugh- 
tered or sold to be slaughtered was $398,956,376; 



20 Breeding and Management of Poidtry^ 

the hay crop, 28,000,000 tons, valued at $14 (a 
high estimate), was $384,000,000. 

The assertion that the Qgg and poultry produce of 
the States exceeds either of these large x:)roducts, is 
met with derision ; yet it is true, and the produce 
finds no rival save in the entire meat and dairy pro- 
duct combined. 

Compute the nine millions of families in the States 
as consuming but two dozen eggs per week, and 
($20) twenty dollars' worth of poultry per year, 
and we have (computing eggs at twenty-five cents 
per dozen,) over $405,000,000. Nor is this all. 
Large as it is, to it must be added the consumption 
by the saloons, restaurants, confectionery establish- 
ments, our thousands of hotels, together with the 
medicinal and chemical and exportation demand, 
which will swell the amount to not less than five 
hundred millions of dollars as the annual product of 
the United States ; an interest worthy of our consid- 
erate investigation. Wlien we commence to make 
figures, we become surprised at their magnitude ; and 
that you may not underrate the hotel consumption, 
we will say that a New York innkeeper offers sixty 
cents per dozen for three hundred dozen of eggs 
per day, if he can find the party who will guarantee 



or Thorough-hreds for Practical Use. 21 

their delivery fresh ; and this is for the demand of 
three hotels only. The consumption of meat to 
each guest per day at the Grand Pacific, the pro- 
prietor of the hotel informs us, is $2.50, and two- 
thirds of that amount is for poultry and game. 
Another item should be considered in this connec- 
tion, and that is, thousands of prairie farmers, who 
live so remote as to make the running of meat- 
wagons unprofitable, are obliged to rely on theii' 
farms for fresh meat, and it is a fact that two-thirds 
of it is poultry and eggs. It is the custom with 
them in early winter to kill and pack in snow and 
ice the supplies of poultry for home use. This, 
with the richer third of the population who consume 
far more than the estimate offered, will more than 
make up for the poor of our Eastern cities, who 
consider poultry a luxury and seldom indulge in its 
jise. With these items as data, we claim our estimate 
of five hundred millions to be far less, rather than more 
than the actual yearly product, which as we have said, 
makes the industry of poultry breeding and keeping 
one of the largest in which our farmers are interest- 
ed. Like in comparison as the giant oak to its acorn 
origin, is this large product, made up from the small 
collections from the small flocks of fowls seen about 



22 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

the door of the hamlet and the farmhouse, in num- 
bers of 12, 20, 30, and 50, and where a larger 
number is seen so rarely that they become the 
exception. These iiocks pay a large profit on their 
cost of production, as may be seen by consulting the 
different societies' reports. In 1858, we see that 
thirty-eight fowls, kept in small yards, under un- 
favorable circumstances, with a market at thirty- 
eight cents for corn, sixteen and two-thirds cents for 
eggs, and fifteen cents per pound for poultry, yielded 
a net profit of $1.38 per head. In 1861, Mr. Mans- 
field's experiment with one hundred hens, having a 
free range of the farm, consuming but ninety-three 
bushels of corn or its equivalent, produced one hun- 
dred and forty-seven eggs each (no chickens being 
raised that year) , and yielded a net profit on Qg^ 
alone, of $1.35 per head ; to which, had the value 
of the gaano been added, the figures would have 
reached the sum of $1.60. These, and other state- 
ments, are to be found in the Middlesex South 
Society's reports, of $2, $2.25, and $2.50 per head 
profit per annum ; and last, but not least, the banner 
statement of Mr. Whitman in 1873. With fifty-one 
Leghorns, which laid two hundred and seven Qgg^ 
each, which he sold for thirty-one cents per dozen, 



or Thorough-breds for Practical Use. 23 

the cost of keeping the fowls bemg |1.13 each, he 
shows a profit of $4.04 per head, proving conclu- 
sively that these small flocks pay much better with 
care than do other farm stock. 

All the different breeds will pay a handsome pro- 
fit if furnished quarters suitable for their condition, 
and properly cared for ; and, generally, it is best 
for the breeder to make a specialty of the kind his 
taste shall dictate. But with our twenty years' ex- 
perience with all the so-called thoroughbred va- 
rieties, we are led to advise, that, taking into con- 
sideration the individual merit and associate worth, 
the selection of Light Brahmas, Leghorns, and 
Plymouth Eocks, for they will be found to pay the 
best for extra care. 

The Brahma is a superior winter layer, producing 
the larger number of her eggs from October to May. 
As poultry, the chicks have to be killed quite young, 
— say eight to ten weeks old, as broilers ; the most 
profitable time, as roasters, being at eight months. 
This makes them late as poultry ; but to make up 
for it in a measure, the virgin cocks are tender 
enough for roasting at even twelve to thirteen 
months, more so than the native at seven or eight 



24 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

months, and in early spring, sell next in price to 
capons. 

The Plymouth Kocks are good average layers, and 
excellent mothers, their special merit being that 
they are rapid growers, and make fine poultry for 
summer and early fall ; and so long 'as the breeders 
are content to have them fill this middle ground 
between the small and the Asiatic breeds, so long 
will they grow in public favor, and remain one of 
the three best breeds for the farmer's use. 

The Leghorns are a non-sitting variety, and one 
of the largest producers of eggs, being most prolific 
during the warmer months of the year. Their 
chicks make nice early, though small broilers, and 
should be killed as such ; for, as roasters, their skin 
is tough and carcass too small, their chief merit 
being in egg production alone. They are very quick 
growers, many pullets commencing to lay at four 
months and a half old, and there are cases on record 
in our own yard, where they have laid at three 
months and three weeks old. We have also started 
with eggs and produced three generations in three 
hundred and sixty-three days. This precocity en- 
ables one to raise his stock-birds even after the 
season is too far advanced to rear successfully the 



or Tliorough-breds for Practical Use, 25 

Plymouth Eock or Brahma. Thus you see how 
peculiarly adapted one to the other the three breeds 
are, and all of them are hardy, standing much ne- 
glect. With them, the farmer easily caters to the 
wants of the markets the year round. 

With the above breeds as stock, the yearly pro- 
duct will average one hundred and fifty eggs and 
eight chickens to each hen, which will sell (taking 
Natick market for 1875, as a basis), as follows : — 

12i dozen eggs, at 25 cts. per dozen, . . . $3 12 

4 pairs of chickens, 28 lbs., at 25 cts. per lb., . 7 00 

American guano, 25 

Total, $10 37 

The cost of producing the same being, — 

Keeping of hen, $1 15 

15 eggs for incubation, 38 

Cost of growing 8 chicks to 35 lbs. live weiglit, at 

9i cts. per lbs., 3 32 

Interest on investment and casualties, ... 60 

Total, ....... $5 i5 

To notice some of the other breeds, we will say, 
" the Hamburg family " is one of merit as Qgg pro- 
ducers, yielding about one hundi'ed and sixty-five 
eggs per year, as a rule ; and there is a case on 
Tecord where a sino^le hen of the Golden-SDauo^led 
variety laid one hundred and fifty-one eggs in six 



26 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

months. As poultry, the meat and bones are dark, 
so much so as not to be desired by market-men. 
The race is delicate, and hard to rear, but when six 
or eight months old, seems to have become quite 
hardy, except it be a predisposition to the disease 
called "black comb,"- — but why the disease should 
be so termed we cannot understand. To be sure, 
the comb turns black, but the causes come from 
derangement of the egg-producing organs. We 
have seen them lie down, their combs become black, 
and they, to all appearance, dead, when all at once 
they would expel the Qgg, and in a few moments 
they would be singing about the yard as well as ever. 

The different varieties of this family are Golden- 
Spangle, Golden-Pencilled, Silver-Spangle, Silver- 
Pencilled, — -this last being the old-time Bolton Grey, 
under which name it was first imported into this 
country. The white and black varities are of more 
recent date than the first four named ; the black, we 
think, the most hardy and prolific of them all. 

The Spanish was long known as one of tlie best 
layers, and, in fact, the old Minorcas were in every 
respect equal to the Leghorns, but the breeding of 
the white face upon this breed has resulted in the 
fact that much of their merit has been sacrificed. 



or Thorough-hredsfor Practical Use, 27 

Their eggs are larger than those of any other ]3reed, 
but in number they fall much behind the average. 
They are extremely delicate as chicks, but when 
once matured, they seem reasonably hardy ; and the 
contrast of a pure white face and ear-lobe, with 
their metallic, green-black plumage, makes them 
much admired. As poultry, here in America, we 
would not concede, perhaps, that they were up to 
the averao^e. Their dark leo^s and white meat are 
not preferred by the masses. 

The Dominique is every way equal in merit as to 
number of eggs, and in poultry equally as good, as 
the Plymouth Eock ; it being rather under size, 
compels it to take a second place. In all other 
points, what has been said for the Plymouth Rocks, 
would apply to the Dominique. 

The French class, comprising Houdans, LaFleche 
and Creve C(£ur, while they are highly appreciated 
in France, have failed to give general satisfaction in 
New England. But Mr, Aldrich of Hyde Park has 
been successful with the Houdans, and claims for 
them all that is excellent as table fowls, l^esides 
being a good average producer of eggs : they are 
more inclined to non-sittino- than otherwise. But 
the Houdan and Creve Coeur require w^arm, dry 



28 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

quarters. They, like the Polish, are inclined to 
roup if confined in damp quarters. 

The La Fleche are the most delicate to rear of the 
whole class, and in our northern climate are much 
troubled with a weakness in ther limbs. A good 
healthy hen of this breed, we believe, will lay more 
eggs from March to October than any other breed, 
not excepting the Leghorn. 

The Cochins are, in England, much preferred. 
They are good mothers, being covered with long, 
fluffy feathers. They are hardy, and as layers in 
winter are hard to excel. Their eggs are furnished 
with a thick shell, and in closely bred birds are 
extremely hard to hatch. There are the Partridge, 
Buff, White, and Black varieties, all having their 
admirers ; the Partridge being the most beautiful, 
while the Black has undoubtedly the most merit, for 
they are good layers and fine poultry. For one 
dollar, the '' American Standard of Excellence" can 
be obtained, which gives a full description of the 
different breeds. We therefore omit description of 
breeds in this essav. 

As a rule, a bushel of corn will produce nine 
pounds of live weight in poultry, and, with good 
even care, one has only to weigh his chicks to know 



or Thorough-breds for Practical Use, 29 

their cost. When fowls are fed sparingly, being 
kept short, they become an expense ; for there is no 
stock that pays so poorly, if neglected, or as well, 
if extra care is taken of them. A greater profit will 
be realized on incubating breeds, if allowed to rear 
one brood of chicks during the season ; for the 
incubating season gives the laying functions rest, 
and you get more eggs, we are confident, in the year, 
beside the care of the brood of chicks gratis ; and as 
the chicks will pay one hundred per cent profit on 
their cost, you will find that many of the incubating 
breeds will pay as well, and even better, than some 
of the non-sitting varieties. In all breeds, it will 
be found to pay to take pains to make your selec- 
tions from the best-laying families of the breed, for 
there is as much dilference in them as there is in the 
Shorthorn breed of cattle for milk. 

The smaller the flock, the greater will be found 
the individual yield ; but the most economical pro- 
vision, taking into the account the care of the flock 
and greatest comparative profit compared to cost of 
provision made for them, will be found in groups of 
fifty, for a greater number will not do as well to- 
gether. This number can be kept in health and a 
high productive condition in a house with a laying- 



30 Breeding and Management of Poultry^ 

room fifteen feet square, an open shed ten by fifteen, 
posts seven feet higli, all under one roof, which can 
be half-pitch, with a cupola-ventilator twent}^ inches 
square. The exhalations from fowls are very poison- 
ous, and it is very essential that they have thorough 
ventilation. At the same time, we must not expose 
the flock to a direct draught of air. Fowls, left to 
themselves, will not stand in a draught, and, when 
compelled to, they take cold as easily as does the 
human family. 

A window on the south side of the laying-room, 
six feet Icmg and four feet wide, the sill of which 
comes down to within one foot of the floor, will 
warm and light the room, and keep the gravel dry, 
which will help in the work of deodorizing the drop- 
pings. Construct a platform twenty inches from the 
floor, twenty-two inches wide, around the walls of 
the room. One foot above the same, place the 
roost, which should be two and a half, and, for 
Asiatics, three inches wide, — the corners rounded 
off. Under the platform construct the nests by 
means of a portable frame that will be fourteen 
inches deep, the front made of two strips five inches 
wide, and a door nine inches wide, which is to be 
let down to gather the eggs. This will give a pas- 



or Thorough-breds for Practical Use, 31 

sage-way of eight inches in the rear, thus making 
smooth work in front and gi^^ng seclusion to the 
nests, — the same being easily removed to cleanse 
them. Avoid all permanent or box-made nests, 
which become harbors for lice. Avoid, also, the 
old plan of an inclined plane for roosts, for all the 
fowls will strive to occupy the highest perch, and 
many a fight and fall will be the result, which will 
vastly increase the list of casualties, while the low 
and level plan saves many from lameness and inter- 
nal injury ; for while a hen will walk up to her 
perch, if she has the chance she will invariably fly 
down. Roosting low makes them less breachy ; 
even the smaller breeds, if reared on low perches, 
will not require a fence more than four and a half to 
five feet high to fence them in. The floor of the 
house should be kept covered three to four inches 
deep with a coarse-fine gravel, not so fine as to be 
called sand, yet having a loam mixture in it. This 
will deodorize all the filth and stench — the bane 
of the poultry-house. 

The floor should be raked over at least three times 
each week (if it cannot be done daily) , and all sur- 
face filth, with the di'oppings from the platforms 
removed, and the whole replaced with a fresh supply 



32 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

of soil twice each year. The fertilizer thus manu- 
factured will be found excellent for all root-crops, 
especially onions and carrots. 

If the flock is to be confined, and on the least 
practical amount of ground, each house and shed 
will need two yards, two rods wide and ten rods 
long ', the two being necessary, so that while one is 
in use the other can be sowed down to forage crops, 
thus furnishing the fowls with raw vegetable food,^ 
as* much a necessity as grass for the cow, to secure 
the best results. 

In constructing these conveniences for your fowls, 
do not think you can get along without the open 
shed, for experience teaches that for a large produc- 
tion of eggs and security of their hatching when set, 
that the fowls must have the open air daily ; and a 
shed that protects them from the storms and driving 
winds in winter, and furnishes cool retreat in sum- 
mer, will prove a most judicious expenditure. These 
numbers and fixtures can be augmented to any num- 
•ber required, but each fifty should be a community 
of itself. Add no more than you can care for as 
well as you do the first fifty you start with, and an 
which you have based your calculation of success. 
The many failures are to be attributed to neglect, and 



or Tkorough-breds for Practical Use, 33 

failure to care for the many, with a generosity cor- 
responding to that given the first few* 

The feed for fowls thus confined may consist of 
boiled vegetables (purslane, cabbage, squash, seed- 
cucumbers or potatoes), mashed with wheat-bran 
and corn meal, while hot ; feeding the same at the 
morning meal in such quantities as will be eaten up 
by nine o'clock, allowing the flock to forage till four 
or fiYQ o'clock, when a full feed of small grain and a 
small portion of corn may be fed to them, adding to 
the morning meal fresh ground scraps or meal in 
some form, three days in each week. This will be 
found sufficient till the frost prevents the further 
growing of forage crops ; then change the feed to 
what soft food they will eat up at the morning meal, 
— small grains, sunflower seed, etc., at noon, and 
what corn they will eat at evening. This will maintain 
the most even animal heat for the twenty-four hours ; 
it being health and heat that produce the eggs, the 
hen being simply a machine which, if carefully run, 
must produce the Oigg or die. During the winter 
months, feed chopped cabbage and turnips, and 
rowen hay. Rowen clover is an excellent substitute 
for grass, and is the only thing we can find that will 
produce eggs that will make the golden sponge-cake 



34 Breeding and Management of Poultry ^ 

and custard like that seen in summer. They will 
eat from five to six pounds per head during the 
winter, if fed in a rick, keeping them constantly 
supplied; and while it increases their productive- 
ness, it also increases the beauty of their plumage, 
making it well worth one's trouble to supply the 
same. 

The cost of keeping as above will be found to be 
from $1.15 to $1.25 per head. The construction of 
such quarters, as described, and the purchase of 
natives or grade stock, will cost from $2.50 to $2.75 
per head, or if a start be made with thorough-breds, 
$5.00 per head as capital invested. 

In this connection, we would like to call your 
attention to the many natural facilities now unim- 
proved, by which the number of eggs would be 
increased, and a portion of the food and a large per 
cent, of the outlay described, be saved. 

There is no reason why ^ftj fowls to the acre 
could not range with the cattle in our pasture-lands ^ 
and both land and cattle be benefitted thereby. 

When thus colonized, it is noticeable that certain 
fowls adhere to certain members of the herd, busy 
in catching the flies that pester them, and consuming 
the worms and insects disturbed by grazing. 



or Thorough-hreds for Practical Use, 35 

In most of our pastures there are dry kuoUs and 
southern sloping hillsides, in which excavations 
could be made fifteen by twenty-five feet, the ends 
and north sides walled up, leaving but the two sides 
of the laying-room and roof to be built of lumber ; 
even the roof could be thatched, or earth- covered. 
All of which could be home-constructed, or by the 
employment of cheap labor. These habitations 
would be warmer in winter and cooler in summer, 
and therefore better than the first described. These 
quarters, located far enough apart to save the 
expense of fencing for yards, would save the labor 
of forage-crops and all meat-food, till the frost cut 
off the natural supply. 

No farmer should be excused from utilizino: all 
such facilities adjacent to his building, which, with 
the barn-cellar and orchard, would, in most cases, 
enable him to keep at least two hundred and fifty 
fowls, all of which could be cared for by the young- 
er members of the family, and the profits would 
secure older and abler help for the heavier work 
of the farm, while many a boy would be made a think- 
ing, practical farmer, happy in his lot, who is now 
chafing under his hard home-life, waiting only for 
age to liberate him. 



36 Bleeding and Management of Poidtry, 

Farmers, this poultry-keeping has more than a 
money value for you. Interest your boys in it, for 
thereby they learn many of the principles that under- 
lie the successful breeding of stock, — fitting them, 
when older, the better to manage cattle and horses. 
The rapid production of chickens enables them to 
try as many experiments, in a few years, as would 
take a lifetime with stock. In the breeding of fowls, 
they learn that like produces like more surely, and 
only, as a rule, where the stock is bred in line, and 
that to produce chickens uniform in type and color, 
they must have, in both sire and dam, a preponder- 
ance of the blood of the desired type ; they must 
mate kindred blood judiciously, avoiding too close 
relationship, — for by mating fowls of one blood for 
three generations we produce sterility in the Qgg. 
They learn that prepotency of sire is more marked 
in the mating of kindred blood, and in the offspring 
of dams of weak constitution, and when appearing 
in the coupling of radically different blood, that it is 
an exception and not the rule. They learn that the 
. blood most difficult to subjugate, in the end has more 
lasting quality, and does the flock the most good as a 
new infusion of blood ; these interests, once awaken- 
ed, cannot slumber; the boys become thoughtful, 



or Thorough-hreds for Practical Use, 37 

and, as years increase, you find in them a help not 
found in your hireling. 

So for we have tried to show the best management 
of adult fowls. But this stock, from year to year, 
must be renewed ; for beyond the second year, 
younger stock will be found to pay much better, and 
those birds that are coming two years old in June, 
should be sold as poultry just before chickens come 
into the market, Avhen they bring a much better 
price, and their value will replace them with young 
stock. If the young stock is to be reared on the 
farm, it will necessitate the rearing of as many 
chickens as the breediiig-stock number ; for chicks 
hatch nearly equal as to sex, which only enables you 
to replace the two-year-old birds each year sent to 
market. 

A single brood of chicks will thrive and take care 
of themselves. With even care, one hundred can be 
reared in a flock, and all do well. But if more are 
to be reared, care should be taken to confine those of 
the same age together, — the February and March 
chicks in one field, April and May chicks in another, 
and those hatched later in a third. Each lot will be 
found to do well ; but, if running all together, the 
young ones get trampled to death by the older ones. 



38 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

Suppose we should rear our children as mauy do 
their chicks , the whole family running over and step- 
ping upon the nursling, should we wonder if it grew 
up crippled and deformed? 

Avoid huddling them together. Twelve to fifteen 
chicks are all that should be allowed to brood in one 
coop. We are apt to let the brood quarter in the 
chicken-coop till quite late in Hie fall, when they out- 
grow the coop, and crowding into it, they suffer 
from their own exhalations ; and the piling one upon 
another, causes, In many cases, the slipping down of 
the hips and the one-sided appearance which so often 
comes to our notice. 

The best mode of setting hens is, to sink a barrel 
on its side one-third into the ground, filling up with 
earth even with the earth on the outside, using a 
small quantity of hay to form the nest, especially in 
early spring. This, you see, will prevent the cold 
air from reaching the eggs through the hay from 
the under side, and chilling them, while the earth in 
the barrel becomes heated by the hen, which in- 
creases your chances for an early brood. Place one of 
the chicken-coops described, in the front of the bar- 
rel, and by the means of a slide-door admit the hen 
to and from the nest. The coop becomes a feeding 



or ThoTOugh-hredsfor Practical Use, 39 

and dusting yard for her while sitting, and a home 
for her and her brood when hatched, besides pre- 
venting her from deserting her eggs. As the season 
approaches June and July, pour into the barrel, be- 
fore putting in the earth, a half-pailful of water. 
The heat of the hen will draw the moisture up, and 
prevent too rapid evaporation in the eggs, and secure 
for you a better hatch. 

By setting an even number at a time, and doubling 
up the broods, you can reset the hens thus released 
(which generally do better the second time), by 
which means you secure eighteen clutches of chick- 
ens from twelve incubating hens, which will produce 
as a rule about one hundred to one hundred and ten 
chickens that will be marketable. The overplus will 
be found to not more than make good the casualties 
and deformities. 

This plan of hatching and rearing the chickens 
away from your fowl-houses releases them from, and 
prevents the incubation of millions of lice, which 
are generally produced by setting the hens where 
they are in the habit of laying. If you wish to see 
every louse and red-spider, which is the same as the 
bed-bug for the human family, concentrated into 
twenty inches square, just allow a few hens to iucu>- 



40 Breeding and Management of Poultry j, 

bate in the hen-house^ The best food for young 
chickens, for the first week or ten days, is stale 
wheat bread, soaked in scalded milk, and occasion- 
ally boiled chopped eggs ; millet and canary-seed 
will be found quite forcing, and will giYQ the brood 
a good start, and It pays to use them for the first 
two weeksv This feed can be followed by scalded 
oat-mealy wheat-bran, and corn-meal, mixed, say one- 
third each, with cracked corn and wheat and whole 
coruy as soon as the chicks are large enough to 
eat it. 

It is unadvisable to hatch chickens earlier than the 
season will admit of getting them on to grass by the 
time they are four weeks old. If they are hatched 
earlier than this, sow, when the brood hatches, a 
frame of oats in your hot-house or kitchen, and cut 
each day the gi*een oats for them. In this way you 
can carry the chickens over till the grass comes in 
the spring, and the trouble thus taken will repay 
you in the possession of early show birds, that gen- 
erally sell for a much larger price, according to their 
merit, than later birds ; and only by such care can 
we hope to win the premiums in the September 
exhibitions. Diarrhoea is the scourge of young 
chickens in early spring. When the symptoms 



or Thorough-hredsfor Practical Use, 41 

appear give only scalded milk as drink, and none 
but cooked food, which will be found generally 
to correct the eviL 

At four to six months old separate the cockerels 
from the flock, and feed mashed boiled potatoes, 
with meal and barley and whole corn, thus fitting 
them for the shambles ; and the pullets at five 
months old place in your breeding-pens, where 
they will soon commence to repay you for their 
care, and most assuredly in a like proportion. In 
nearly all the cases where we find people breeding 
in this practical way, we find them using only what 
we call native or mongrel stock. This, we believe, 
is a mistake, for the thorough-bred is worth as much, 
and many of the breeds far more, for this practical 
work ; and should all use the thorough-bred, killing 
as they do now, one-third for poultry, using the 
larger number left to produce eggs for the market, 
using as breeders only the best they raise, selling 
only for breeding purposes when a fair price (say 
from two dollars and fifty cents to ten dollars each) 
could be realized, they would in tliis way raise the 
standard and come to realize that in every twelve 
fowls they kept they had the value of a cow, and, car- 
ing for them as w^ll, they would find they paid as well. 



42 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

Show us a farmer who is conscious of capital in- 
vested in his fowls, and we will show you a farmer 
who makes money out of them. The greater tlie 
number raised, the higher the price you will be able 
to command for the best individual specimens. This 
has proved true in cattle. (See history of Short- 
horn cattle in America. ) It is every day being re- 
peated in fowls. Twenty-five years ago we sold 
Light Brahmas at one dollar each, and the price was 
considered a fair one, the native then selling for 
thirty-three cents. When the price increased to 
twenty-five dollars per trio, it became the town talk ; 
but in the past three years, when we have sold cock- 
erels at one hundred dollars, and trios at one hundred 
and fifty dollars, it has ceased to be a surprise, and 
really it is not in keeping with bulls at seventeen 
thousand dollars each. We expect to live to see 
specimens of superior excellence sold as high as two 
hundred and fifty dollars. Already, in England, 
five hundred dollars a trio has been realized. 



PA.RT III. 



UNIFORM TYPE AND COLOR IN BREEDING. 



In setting up your boys iu the business of practi- 
cal poultry keeping, or for breeding thorough-breds 
for the market, it is well that they havea motive and 
aim in view, — something that will interest and in- 
struct as well as to make them money. We will 
therefore give our rule to secure uniform type and 
coler in breeding, or how to establish a strain of such 
blood, hoping by interesting them in the theory, to 
interest them in the practical workings of it. 

The American people are lovers of " beauty " in 
everything ; a beautiful horse, a beautiful cow, 
all demand a price far above those of equal merit 
that fail in symmetry. Then, in breeding, aim 
to attain : first, beauty or symmetry ; second, 
color ; and both coupled with merit as egg pro- 



4:4 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

(Jucers ; and as the first two are to be transmitted in 
a gi'eater degree by the male, it becomes of great 
importance that he should possess those desirable 
features. 

In selecting a sire, be sure that he is well hred^ 
and comes from a line of ^^ good ones,^^ a bird which 
is the counterpart of Ms sire ; for then you have a 
double guarantee that he will control the offspring. 
As a rule, the offspring bred back to the grandsire, 
the sire and grandsire being alike, we start with an 
almost certainty of success, if we do our part in the 
mating. Having made our selection, we must put 
our foot down and stand firmly to the rule of breed- 
ing to no sires but this one, or males of his get, and 
none of them that do not assume the likeness of the 
sire ; thus establishing a line, or " strain of blood," 
which, in a single word, means uniformity ► 

In the hen, secure first, productiveness as to eggs ; 
second, a robust constitution, coming from a long- 
lived race ; third, color ; lastly, symmetry : and from 
this mating select the large pullets that most re- 
semble the sire, and breed them back to the sire. 
This second crop of birds will be three-fourths the 
blood of the sire you selected as the founder of 
your strain. 



or Thorough-hreds for Practical Use, 45 

Now the more stubbornly the blood of the first 
dam gives up to the blood of the sire, the more good 
it will do us when subjected properly to him. 

Many select welW^red hens of a weakly constitu- 
tion to make the first cross, for they assert, and 
truthfully, that the sire being so robust and strong, 
nearly all the chicks favor the sire. This is all true, 
but it is also true that the blood used in the hen is 
weak and will fail in lasting quality. We like strong 
blood ; that which in the first cross seems to fight 
for the breeding influence ; that which has got to be 
bred back to the strain desired, and the control 
given if only by a preponderance of blood. We then 
get a lasting good from the cross. Constitution and 
vital force must come from the dam, form and color 
from the sire ; and in all the matings, the introduc- 
tion of new^ blood must be with a thought to that 
end. 

The crossing of two well-bred strains oftentimes 
produces a distinct and new type which is yqyj 
beautiful. To secure this new type (which is in 
itself a fact that the two elements producing were 
of equal strength, as neither controlled the breed- 
ing), and to perpetuate it, it would in that case 
be wise to select a dam of delicate though pure 



46 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

blood, thus giving the sire all the chance possible 
to stamp his offspring ; then by breeding his pullet 
back, to concentrate his breeding in his grand- 
children, they also being his children ; then we 
could go on, by selections of coarser or stronger 
dams for new blood for the strain. The Americani 
breeder is of a restless nature ; he wants something 
that is peculiar to himself; something in which ha 
can be identified. You find them all over the 
country, chopping up the blood of their birds by 
the introduction of new sires, first from one flock, 
then from another, hoping thereby to have some- 
thing different. They succeed ; but when they have 
got it, they are disappointed that no one else wants 
it. They think the bottom has gone out of the^ 
chicken business, and they curse the business and 
retire. Of such we will say, the business is better 
off when they do retire from it. Now, there is 
but one way to reach uniformity in breeding, no 
matter whether it is horses, cattle, or fowls, and 
that is by " in breeding," and, like poison, it may 
kill or cure, just according as we display good 
judgment in its use. 

Whenever we introduce new dams to a strain, 
breed their progeny back to the sire of the strain, 



or Thorough-hreds for Practiced Use. 47 

and never use sires from this new introduction of 
blood until the blood has become thoroughly sub- 
jected to the strain. 

To explain : if the chicks of the mating of the 
pullets to sires of the strain are not all in type like 
the strain, then breed back again, and not use a 
male as a stock bird until the desired affinity of the 
blood has been accomplished. As a rule, use no 
male with less than seven-eights of the blood of the 
strain, nor females with less than three-fourths of the 
blood of your strain as stock birds. 

If all the breeders would adopt this plan of breed- 
ing, and would keep a record, they would then see 
the importance of pedigree, and how beautifully all 
these things are governed by a natural law. "We 
can mix the blood of our birds as easily as we mix 
the paints that give us different tints in color. By 
adhering to this mode, one breeder becomes of 
benefit to his neighbor breeder ; for by crossing 
strains, the pullets become of equal value to each : 
each breeding back to his respective strain makes 
the blood of his neighbor's strain feed the blood 
of his own. When breeders learn this, aud work 
together, they will all be better off, and may become 
founders of families in fowls, as now breeders of 
Shorthorns become in cattle. 



PA.RT IV. 



DISCUSSION OF THE BOARD. 



At the close of the foregoing Essay, the following 
discussion of the same took place, and we introduce 
it here on account of its practical import. 

Mr. Flint. I have been exceedingly interested 
in the paper which has been read by Mr. Felch. 
I am sure he has come up to the expectations of 
those who had so much confidence, when they 
invited him to prepare this paper. Mr. Felch 
has had many years of thorough and careful ex- 
perience and accurate observation, and I am sui*e 
the principles which he has enunciated in his paper 
will be of great interest and great value to the large 
number of poultry breeders in this State. 

I should very much like to hear the experience 
and observation of those w]ia ^re now engage^ 



or Thorough-hredsfor Practical Use, 49 

practically, every day, in poultry breeding. There 
are a great many questions, I knoTr, that many 
persons wish to hear discussed, and there are others 
here who can discuss them better than I can. I 
have been a somewhat extensive poultry breeder 
in the course of my life. I have kept a great 
variety of fowls ; too great a variety, altogether, 
I am sure, for profit. I have generally come to 
the conclusion, that where profit, for poultry and 
eggs together, is concerned, the Light Brahma is the 
best breed ; but as Qgg producers, the White Le^-- 
horn, and jDcrhaps one or two other breeds, greatlv 
sui'pass them. 

So far as the feeding of poultry^ is concerned, I 
am pretty well satisfied that farmers and those who 
keep poultry are inclined to feed too much corn. 
Corn, as you all know, will induce fat, and when 
poultry are to be fatted for market, thej' can be 
fatted, probably, quicker and more economically 
upon corn or corn-meal, heated, than upon any 
other substance ; but as fiir as my experience has 
gone, it is not advisable to feed corn if you wish 
to get the largest number of eggs ; it induces too 
great fat, especially if the hens are kept in some 
confinement. Hens ttat are allowed the whole 



50 Breeding and Maiiagemeni of Poultry^ 

range of the farm may be fed upon almost anything. . 
They run off what little extra fat they get, perhaps, 
by eating too much corn ; but poultry that are 
confined, or partially confined, ought not to be fed 
too much upon corn. Oats, or any of the smaller 
grains, and vegetables, potatoes, fish, and that class 
of food, it seems to me, are very much better. 

As far as the feeding of fresh or cured rowen or 
young clover is concerned, I have no doubt that 
what Mro Felch has said is correct. 

Question. Is there any danger of making White 
Leghorns so fat by feeding them on corn that they 
cannot fly ? 

Mr. Felch. I don't think you can give them 
anything that will fat them so that they cannot run 
or fly. But as ^^^ producers, there is no question 
that the White Leghorn family is the best. They 
will forage for themselves, and pretty thoroughly, 
and they are stronger in their feet than the Asiatic 
breeds, if we are to judge by the damage they will 
do in the garden. 

Question. Do you have bottoms to your coops ? 

Mr. Felch. I do not. I have simply platforms 
for early spring, on which to place the coops, in the 
summer allowing them to set upon the ground. 



or TJiorough-breds for Fractical Use, 51 

Question. How clo you feed the clover rowen? 

Me. Felch. After curing it becomes brittle ; 
simply feed in a rick, as to stock. If it is cut up 
too fine, and fed carelessly, they will waste it. 

Question, Which is best, the Brown or White 
Leghorn ? 

Mr. Felch, I would not say one was better 
than tliQ other. 

Question. Do ^ou have any difficulty in hatch- 
insT chickens from the eo'ofs that are laid bv the 
Asiatics ? 

Mk. Felch. That is the danger of the vvhole 
business. They sometimes become so very fat, that 
it will be almost impossible to hatch an Qgg from 
them. Turn them rio'ht out and s^ive them food 
that will not fat them, and you will find that the 
eggs will hatch well. 

Me. Hersey of Hingham. Mr. Felch says that 
close breeding in and in tends to sterility. I vrould 
like to inquire if he has had any actual tests of this, 
and if so, wdiat difficulties he has encountered. 

Mr. Felch. What I mean by in and in breed- 
ing is breeding birds of the same blood or pedigree 
together. I rilways take pains when I am breeding 
in line, "breeding in," as I term it, to so mate that 



52 Breeding and Management of Poultry^ 

there will be a change of blood, and secure the 
chick in blood different from sire and dam. It is 
always better to breed back to the sire than to breed 
the chicks together. When introducing a new ele- 
ment of blood, I iind often-times that this works 
well. This is a rule I have followed for twenty 
years. I believe I was one of the first to adopt this 
course. I never buy a male bird, and consequently 
I have been obliged to make this new blood for 
scores of others ; and when I buy a new bird, I treat 
it in that way, breeding the pullets of the first cross 
right back to a sire of that strain, and never use a 
male bird until I have reduced the foreign blood to 
one-fourth or one-eighth, l^ow, if you breed in and 
in for three generations, that is, breed brothers and 
sisters, in three generations, it will be almost impos- 
sible to hatch an ^^g» 

Mr. Hersey. Have you had any actual tests 
of it? 

Mr. Felch. Yes, sir ; I believe, as a rule, the 
statement I make will hold good. There may be 
exceptions ; there are exceptions to all rules. But I 
think if any one follows that rule, so that he will 
know exactly what he is doing, he will find that I 
am correct. But the fact is, a great many do not 



or Thorough-hreds for Practical Use, 53 

know. Tliey will have a flock of birds, and they 
will save a young cockerel from them and breed 
from them, thinking they are all of one blood. If 
they will start from one single dam and breed her 
chickens together, and their chickens, and then a 
third lot, I am quite sure they will reach a point 
where the eggs will not hatch. Unless you have 
a flock of hens in one inclosure, you can see how 
easily you lose the track of them. You cannot get 
uniformity unless you breed your line of sires to the 
same strain of blood. I think any one who has 
tried it will agree with me in what I have said on 
that subject. 

Mr. Heksey, I suppose we meet together here 
to gather facts, and whatever the result of our ex- 
periments may be, it is for our interest to know 
about them. 

Twenty-five years ago, I started for the purpose of 
demonstrating, one w^ay or another, whether we 
should be able to breed in and in or not. I took a 
white native, and from that white native I have bred 
for twenty-five years, and still the eggs hatch. Dur- 
ing the twenty-five years, only three times have I 
introduced anything diflferent, and those three times 
it was done by eggs and eggs only, and the male 



54- Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

biids were not kept, only the females. But during 
ths last two years, no new blood has been mtroduced 
into my flock, and I have bred in and in as closly as 
possible. And my poultry yard is so situated, and 
so fenced in, that no other poultry can come near 
them. Now, the result is, that my eggs hatch a great 
deal better than my neighbors'. Three years ago 
(which was the last year that I had the care of them 
myself), I set four litters, of thirteen eggs each, and 
every one of them hatched ; and of four others, 
eleven hatched. I think there was not a single lit- 
ter that year that gave less than six chickens from 
thirteen eggs. 

Now, I admit that I have been careful in breeding 
to take only those fowls which were physically strong 
and perfectly healthjr. I think that that is a point 
to which we must look carefully. I believe that 
healthy birds will bring healthy offspring. But 
perhaps I ought not to say what I believe. I only 
rose to state these facts. It is an isolated case, cov- 
ering a period of about twenty-live years. If there 
were twenty-five other individuals here who could 
stand up and say that they had tried the same thing, 
with the same result, we might be able to come to 



or TJiorough-hreds for Practical Use. 55 

some correct conclusion. Perhaps a single experi- 
ment is not sufficient. 

K^ow, if other people have tried the experiment of 
in and in breeding, and failed, — if they have really 
tried it, and not guessed at it,— of course that must 
count against the experiment which I have made. 
But I hope that, if this Board shall meet in this or 
any other hall ten years from this time, there will be 
many individuals who will be able to rise up and say 
"I know from practical tests what the result is of 
breedins: in and in," 

Me. Felch. The gentleman who has just taken 
his seat, says that the introduction of blood was by 
eggs, saving the females. That does not meet the 
case, for he put half a dozen new elements into his 
stock every time he introduced the eggs, which might 
have helped him out. I do not see that his case 
touches the point which I advanced, for one intro- 
duction of six pullets would have carried him through 
the whole twenty years, and the eggs would have 
hatched well. 

Mr. Bill of Paxton. I have had some expe- 
rience in keeping hens, but I rise chiefly to add a word 
to what was said on one point by the gentleman wh.o 
gave us the very instructive and interesting essay, 



5 6 Breeding and Management of Poidtnjy 

and that point is this. He spoke of hen-houses in 
the sides of hills, near our farm buildings , so that 
the fowls might forage in the pasture with the cattle. 
Kow, he did not state what breed of hen would be 
the best for that purpose, but I judge from my own 
experience that a kind of hen not much in favor, 
perhaps, with most hen fanciers, — I mean the Black 
Red Game, — is the one best adapted to that purpose.. 

There is an impression abroad among hen dealers » 
and those who have not inquired into the matter, 
that the Black Red Game, or Game hens, are of lit- 
tle value except for their fighting qualities i but with 
all mj keeping of the Games I never have seen one 
fight but once, and that was with a White Leghorn, 
and he got awfully thrashed ; so I am not keeping 
him for that purpose. But I find that in the pas- 
tures, the Games have the foraging quality, and that 
is the point I rose to make. I know tolerably well 
four or five kinds of Game birds, and any of them 
will walk off and feed by themselves several hundred 
rods,— almost a quarter of a mile. 

Another notion that is prevalent about them is, 
that they are quite wild. That comes partly from 
the name — Game. But I find that the Games are 
as gentle, if you treat them gently, as any hens I 



or Tliorough-hreds for Practical Use. 57 

ever had anything to do with. As to their laying 
qualities, I have kept them several years, and I am 
confident that they do lay well. I wonld not say 
that they are as good layers as the White Leghorn 
or the Brown Leghorn, but I do not know any other 
family, except the Leghorns, that excels the Game 
in laying qualities. 

Another point about the Game i^, that their eggs 
are from a quarter to a third larger than the Light 
Brahmas', or than almost any of the pure-blooded 
hens with which I have had anythiiag to do, except 
the Leghorn. 

I would like to ask a question about the Black 
Spanish. What does Mr. Felch know about them, 
as to their laying qualities, constitution, etc. ? 

Mr. Felch. The Black Spanisb, before the Leg- 
horn came into notice, was considered the best laying 
fowl. They lay large eggs, but they do not lay a 
large number of them. I thing that a full-bred 
Black Spanish will lay about one hundred and twen- 
ty-eight eggs in a year, — about what our native 
fowls will do. Probably there is not half a dozen 
eggs a year difference in what the Black Spanish, the 
Game, and native fowls will lay, and as a rule the 
Game eggs are much smaller than th^ Brahma. 



58 Breeding and Management of Poultry J 

Question. How do tlie BLick Spanish stand tlie 
cold weather in the winter ? 

Me. Feloh, Poorly, A Black Spanish chicken 
is a miserable thing while growing, hut when once 
grown, the fowl seems to be quite hardy. It is a 
beautiful bird to look at ; there is no question about 
that. If a man does not care how much it costs him 
to produce and keep a flock of Black Spanish birds, 
he can have them, and they will do very well, but 
they are not profitable, managed In a practical way. 
I tried to find the breed that a person with the least 
experience could do the best with, everything con- 
sidered, and that is why I selected the Leghorn, 
Plymouth Rock and Light Brahma ; and here let me 
say, that, no matter what the breed is, the Almighty 
has so fixed that thing that they will all pay a profit, 
if properly managed. A man wants to take the 
breed that pleases him, and if he does that, he will 
be likely to take good care of them and make a pro- 
fit. One man likes the Black Eed Game, another the 
Brown Leghorn, and another the Brahma. I do not 
agree with those who say that the Buif Cochin is the 
best bird, of the lot. The Buif Cochin is a splendid 
hen to raise chickens, and they are handy to have for 
that purpose. They look large, but they are not 



- or TliorougJi-breds for Practical Use. 59 

really so. They are veiy full feathered, and their 
feathers make them look large, 

Mr. Vincent. The Black Spanish do not want 
to sit. 

Mr. Felch. ]S[o ; but thev are of weak constitu- 
tion. Still, I can hardly say that, because, when 
oucc grown, they seem to be hardy, if you can keep 
them away from the frost. Their wattles and combs 
are easily chilled, and that seems to take all the 
life out of them until spring. 

Question. What do you consider the best cross ? 

Mr. Felch. I consider the best cross in the 
world is the cross of a White Leghorn cock on a 
Light Brahma hen. I say a White Leghorn, because 
that cross ¥/ill produce a uniform white color. There 
will lie no parti-colored feathers, which is an ad- 
vantage in preparing poultry for the market. 

Question. What would be the quantity of eggs 
produced by that cross ? 

Mro Felch. They will produce as much as either 
of the thorough-breds. I have birds in my family 
of Brahmas that have laid for twenty-three succes- 
sive months without setting ; but that is unnatural. 
I have received several letters this season from 
parties to whom. I have sent birds of this family, 



60 Breeding and Management of Poultry^ 

stating that their birds have laid the entire season 
without wanting to set. The Brahmas, both dark 
and light, do not lay in that way, as a rule. 

The Leghorn I call a hardy bird. The Black 
Spanish I call a delicate bird, because they are 
predisposed to disease. The whole Spanish class 
must have dry, warm quarters, or they will have 
the roup. They will have catarrh in the head, and 
roup follows, and all the attendant diseases. You 
cannot put them in a damp place with impunity. 

Me, Cheevee. Is there any limit to the number 
of eggs that any one of the breeds of hens can lay ? 
I think I have seen it stated in some paper, — from a 
French authority,— -that the ovaries are limited. Do 
you know anything about that ? 

Me. Felch. I do not feel competent to answer 
that question. I have seen it stated that a hen will 
not lay after she gets to be four or five years old. 
But, two years ago, there was a Light Brahma hen 
at the exhibition in Boston, that was twelve years 
and three months old, and she laid three days out 
of the week. I have had a Light Brahma in my 
yard this year, — eight years old, — and she laid some 
forty odd eggs. I believe, therefore, that hens will 
lay until they are pretty old. I do not believe, as 



or Thorougli-hreds for Practical Use. 61 

some do, that they will cease laying at four or five 
years of age ; but, as a rule, birds, after they are 
three years old, begin to fall off in the production 
of eggs. 

QuESTiojs^. Are not pullets the most economical 
kind to keep for eggs ? 

Mr. Felch. The second year appears to be the 
year of greatest profit. You may raise two chick- 
ens, — a pullet and cockerel, — and the day they are 
twelve months old, the pullet will have supported 
herself and the cockerel, and if sold at the end of 
twelve months, that cockerel is net profit. You 
may base your calculations of profits upon that, 
and you will find it to be true. A Leghorn, when 
she commences to lay, will lay, usually, until she 
moults, and, generally, will not commence to lay 
again until the next spring. But you get the start 
of a year, or longer, before it comes to that, if 
she has good blood in her. 

Question. If you were only keeping a few hens 
for eggs, what kind would you select? 

Mr. Felch. K I were keeping hens for eggs 
alone, I should most certainly keep the Leghorn 
breed in preference to any other. Keep the pullets 



62 Breeding and Management of Poultry^ 

up to the time of moulting, and tlien sell them an:' 
replace them. 

QuESTioJs^. Have you had any experience in 
regard to the laying qualities of the Hamburg? 

Mr. Felch, The Hamburg family will lay as 
many eggs, probably, as the Leghorn. They are 
handsome birds ; and if any one has an eye for 
beauty, and wants a /ew handsome birds for eggs 
alone, I should recommend the Hamburg family. 
They are a little tender in raising, but, like the 
Black Spanish, they seem to become hardj^ after- 
wards. They lay well. I have had Hamburgs that 
laid one hundred and fifty-one eggs in six months. 
That is recorded in the report of the Middlesex 
South Agricultural Society for the year 1858, and it 
is also reported, I think, in the State Agricultural 
Report of that year. The Black Hamburg is, I 
believe, the best of the family, for their chickens 
are easily reared, and that, perhaps, is attributable 
to a cross. I think there is a Black Spanish cross 
that went into the original Golden Hamburg, that 
produced the Black Hamburg. The other varieties 
of the Hamburg family are the Silver and Golden- 
Spangled and the Silver and Golden-Pencilled. The 



or Thorouqh-breds for Practical Use, 63 

white and black are two varieties of that class pro- 
duced within my recollection. 

Question", How long do you allow your chicks 
to run with the hen? Do you have many deformed, 
one-sided chickens ? I am troubled that way. 

Me. Felch, I do not take the hen away until 
she weans the chicks herself; yet it is as well to 
remove her to the laying house when the chicks are 
from five to seven weeks old, according to the 
season, I have the partings, or slats of my chicken 
coops, three inches apart, and when my Brahma 
chicks raise one or both v/ings to go in or out of the 
coop, I leave the door open, for in squeezing in and 
out through the openings between the slats, they 
easily slip their hips down, thus making them one- 
sided — deformed— -as you have spoken of. I have 
seen an entire brood ruined by being reared beside 
a picket fence of one and one-half inch spaces. 

The foregoing discussion clearly shows the inter- 
est the farmers of the country are taking in this 
great question of poultry culture. They look upon 
it from a money point of view. They want to know 
how many eggs can be produced, and at what cost, 
and demand practical worth with exhibition excel- 
lence. 



64 Breeding and Management of Poultry ^ 

The rule with all breeds should be, to kill all 
the inferior specimens, whether they be male or 
female, and demand that the beautiful specimens 
be so in a double sense, "Handsome is that, hand- 
some does." 

If we breed from none but tlie most prolific 
layers, we shall the more surely improve our stock 
in laying qualities. The policy of keeping all the 
females, is a bad one ; they should be wed out if 
they are poor layers. 

While the results quoted in the Essay have been 
accomplished, and can be again, we can cut down 
the figures to a net profit of one dollar per head, 
and the margins are then even better than can be 
realized upon cattle or horses. 

There is no danger of overstocking the market ; 
for poultry seems to be a necessity. Our Southern 
brethren are in a large measure dependent upon it 
in warm weather. In all seasons it is to be pre- 
ferred to beef or mutton and it always rules higher 
in the market. 

So long as beef, mutton and pork remain at their 
present prices, and when (as is the fact,) a pound of 
poultry can be raised for the same price per pound, 
we see no reason why it will not be a profitable 



or Thorougti-hreds for Practical Use. 65 

business. Even in this season of low prices, in 
other provisions, we find fresh eggs quoted at 
twenty-seven to thirty cents per dozen, in August, 
and corn but seventy-five cents per bushel at retail. 

A bushel and one peck of corn, or its equivalent, 
will support a laying hen one year, and if she 
produces but eleven dozen of eggs, no more than 
is obtained from the unimproved sort, it will leave 
a margin of two dollars and thirty-six cents per head 
for the care of the flock, which would pay, we opine, 
as well as the majority of the professions. 

We would not counsel the use of mongrel stock, 
as breeders, under any circumstanc^es, nor the use 
of deformed specimens, only in the case of necessity. 
Even deformity caused by accident may have so 
shocked the nervous system as to affect the breeding. 

We are knowing to a case where a hen had her 
foot caught in a steel trap, and, being in it some 
tune before being liberated, had her nervous system 
so shocked, that after the toes were amputated, 
five-sixths of the chicks hatched from her eggs the 
following season, were club-footed in the limb cor- 
responding to the one mutilated on the dam. We 
know, not all, nor even a very small number of like 
accidents v/ould produce a similar effect, but we cite 



66 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

the case to show that if an accident can effect the 
breeding, how much more an hereditary deformity 
would effect it. 

Cross bred fowls are, in the majority of cases, far 
more prolific as egg producers than the native, or 
even the thorough-breds from which they were bred, 
and in all animal or vegetable life this will be found 
true. Therefore we must always produce them from 
the two thorough-breds, for to breed from the cross 
will be to deteriorate. 

A few words upon the most fatal and troublesome 
diseases of poultry and we will leave our readers to 
breed chickens and be happy. 



PA-RT V. 



DISEASES OF FOWLS, 



We shrink from writing upon this subject, for we 
are not an M.D., and we only give our views upon, 
and treatment of a few of the most fatal diseases 
that we have had occasion to deal with. 

We believe in prevention, and when fowls are 
sick, in extermination, more than in doctoring. 
When fowls have their liberty they are seldom ill, 
and when they are confined, if we are careful to 
furnish a good supply of vegetable food, health 
generally attends them. 

In most of the fatal diseases, there is a poisonous 
fungus growth in the blood. Fowls never perspire, 
and the heart beats one hundred and fifty times per 
minute. The evils that are easily thrown ofi" by 
perspiration, with them, have to be exhaled by res- 
piration and as a result we find the seat of nearly all 



68 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

the fatal diseases to be in the head, throat, and 
lungs. Kapid respiration and circulation, therefore 
becomes necessary to expel the vapory excretions. 

The chanticleer of the farm-yard whose liberty 
is not prescribed, will have a battle every week 
and not seem the worse for it, while in a similar 
instance, one kept in a poorly ventilated house, and 
fed upon unwholesome food will suffer from inflamma- 
tion and canker, and in very many cases death will 
follow. And why ? Because the blood is poor and 
even poisoned, and unable to do the work of repair- 
ing the damage until it has thrown off the poison 
from which it is suffering. The former rich in a 
haalthy circulation commences the work of recupera- 
tion the moment the wounds of the battle stop 
bleeding. 

We are all aware that iron is one of the very best 
of blood tonics, and if we but observe, we shall see 
that fowls kept upon an iron and sulphur charged 
soil, are generally more healthy and show better 
lustre to their plumage than those kept upon a dry 
aud arid plain. The reason is that the vegetable 
growth is but the embodiment of the soils, one fur- 
nishing rich iron and sulphur deposits — the other 
destitute of them. 



or Tho7^ough-breds for Practical Use. 69 

The breeder if he woiilcl be successful will do 
well to consider his location and furnish artificially 
that which is lacking in his soil. "From dust and 
to dust'" is true of all things, and it behooves us 
to see of what kind of dust we build our chickens. 

The best doctors are those who watch the patient 
while well, and prevent sickness, instead of waiting 
for symptoms and then doctoring them, (the ex- 
pectant plan, so called,) and finds his remedies in 
the regulation of the diet. 

So the breeder best takes care of his flock, who 
keeps a watchful eye upon them while at roost. 
If the droppings from it show a costive tendency, 
then feed freely of vegetables, such as boiled pota- 
toes, turnips, or cabbage mashed with bran and 
meal while hot. If the droppings show a relaxed 
tendency then cease giving vegetables, and resort 
to baked johnny-cake, corn, and tincture of iron. 
Sour or sweet milk is one of the best things to feed 
poultry at all times. Fowls thus carefully fed are 
seldom sick unless it be that they have what we 
term the " distemper." 

DISTEMPER. 

This disease all chickens are heir to, and gener- 



70 Breeding and Management of Poultry^ 

ally are taken about the time they are from twenty- 
two to twenty-six weeks old, and at the time they 
are shedding their second chicken feathers, prepara- 
tory to putting on their freedom suits, so to speak. 

If carefully watched little or no medicine is need- 
ed, and so light is the disease that it hardly deserves 
a place in this catalogue, yet if not jealously watched 
it becomes the most frightful in the introduction of 
roup and consumption. 

Symptoms. — A listless quiet mein, a disposition 
to remain on the roost in the day time, face and 
comb quite red, and a puff or fullness of the face under 
the eye. The second day a white froth is discern- 
able in the corner of the eye. A decided loss of 
appetite is also noticeable. 

Treatment, — If noticed, and the disease taken in 
hand before the appearance of the froth in the eye, 
it will usually only be necessary to wash the head 
and beak clean, and blow down through the nose 
into the throat either with the mouth, or by means 
of a rubber nipple, thus clearing the tear tube, and 
bathe the head and wash the throat with a solution 
of carbolic acid — one part acid to ten parts water. 
The birds should be kept in a quiet place and 
allowed nothing but water. The third day they will 



or Thorougli-hreds for Practical Use. 71 

regain their appetites and all is over. Many of 
them have this distemper so lightly as not to be 
noticed. 

In aggravated cases when the eyes and face are 
much swollen, the head and throat should be thorough- 
ly steamed by the use of a large sponge and hot 
water. The tear tube should be cleared (as before 
explained,) a desert-spoonful of castor oil given, 
and the bathing of the face and throat with the 
solution of carbolic acid continued at short intervals. 

This distemper may be called a cold, or the in- 
cipient stages of the roup. We will not quarrel 
about names, but simply say that in our opinion it 
is no more roup than a cold is measles. There is 
no ofiensive smell to the breath as in roup, but if 
neglected it will excite roup. We have not the 
slightest doubt of this ; in fact know it to be the 
case, and the breeder has the choice of adopting the 
adage, "A stitch in time saves nine," and attending 
to this mild, easily managed distemper, or to neglect 
it and have that scourge of a poultry house — " the 
roup" — to contend with. 

KOUP. 

When roup appears, our advice is, to kill the 



72 Breeding and Management of Poultry^ 

affected one and turn your attention at once to 
the flock, giving sulphur in tiie ratio of a table- 
spoonful to fifteen fowls every other day for a week^ 
feeding tincture of iron, eight drops to a hen every 
day in their soft food, which will pay to he boiled 
rice, until treatment is over. With this, be sure 
that the ventilation is complete and free from direct 
drafts upon the fowls. For the benefit of those who 
wish to cure the disease we give the following symp- 
toms and our method of treatment ; 

Symptoms. — Swelling of the head, watery dis- 
charges from the eyes and nostrils, which are very 
foetid and offensive to the smell, following which, 
these discharges become acrid and result in a con- 
gealed yellow coating to the mouth and tongue, 
called canker — which we term a poisonous fungus 
growth in the blood. 

Treatment. — ^Wash and steam the head and throat 
with hot water in which a dash of carbolic acid is 
added. Clear the nasal passage to throat by an 
injection of carbolic water, one part carbolic acid to 
ten parts water. Gargle the throat and tongue with 
a solution of potash, but do not peel the canker off, 
if to do so causes any bleeding', for that would only 
aggravate the disease. Give a dessert-spoonful of 



or Thorough-hreds for Practical Use. 73 

castor oil, and each morning give nearly a gill 
of milk in which three or four grains of hypo- 
sulphite of soda has been dissolved. At evening, 
after the washing and steaming, the cleansing of the 
nasal passage, and the gargling, give a gill of 
milk with eight drops of tincture of iron. 

The milk can be easily administered by taking 
the bird by the under beak and drawing the neck 
upward till straight, when the milk poured from a 
tea-pot will run into the crop without the effort of 
swallowing. 

At the end of about four or five days the effect of 
the hyposulphite of soda in the blood, and the solu- 
tion of carbolic acid as a wash may be seen in the 
sloughing off of the cankerous substance from the 
tongue and mouth, when the fowl will commence 
to mend. The treatment at this stage should be 
nourishing food, with occasional doses of sulphur, 
and the fowls will regain their health and spright- 
liness. 

Six-sevenths of the cases of roup are curable, but 
its extreme contagion makes the cure a questionable 
policy, and it should never be undertaken unless the 
affected fowl be at once removed from the flock and 
the fowl-house. 



74 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

CHICKEN POX. 

There is a disease, new to us, which' came to our 
notice the present spring, which we should call an 
eruption, or the chicken pox. 

Symjptoms. — An eruption of the comb, face and 
wattles, raised and warty in appearance, and in color 
a yellowish white. When the crests are removed, 
these warty substances resemble a bunch of tiny 
spiles set into the flesh. They bleed profusely. 

Treatment. — Remove the crests and bathe in hot 
water and carbolic acid. When the bleeding ceases 
apply citrine ointment, when the warts will dry 
down to a hard black scab. Let the scabs remain 
for sixty or seventy-two hours, when by removing 
them, they will take away with them the little white 
roots of the disease — from one-sixteenth to one- 
quarter of an inch in length. 

Give each morning for four days a pill made as 
follows : Table-spoonful of common flour, table- 
spoonful of flour of sulphur, tea-spoonful of cayenne 
pepper, twenty-five to twenty-eight drops '^ Fowler's 
Solution," (if this cannot be obtained, use sixty 
grains hyposulphite of soda instead,) and milk 
enough to mould the compound into twenty pills. 



or Thorougli-bredsfor Practical Use. 75 

Dissolve four grains of quinine in two-thirds of a 
pint of milk, giving one-half in the morning and 
balance in evening, or in three equal doses during 
the day. Feed, while treating, on boiled onions 
and rice, mixed with oat-meal. If the disease attacks 
the eye and so prevents feeding, make the food into 
pellets half the size of one's little finger, which, if 
dipped in milk and the bird held as described in 
roup, will slip down the throat readily. 

If the sulphur acts too powerfully upon the bowels 
scald the milk given, which will check its influence 
on the bowels and cause it to work more strongly in 
the blood. The disease is so like the "yaws" de- 
scribed by Dr. Quinn, we are of the opinion that it 
is a kindred one, if not the same. 

Roup sometimes accompanies it, but they are not 
alike. This has a run, and requires from five to 
seven days to treat it. We tried specimens of a 
strong constitution by giving milk and water, and 
without treatment, which recovered. It is very 
contagious, and on its first appearance kill the speci- 
men afflicted, and by the use of vegetables, sulphur 
and iron treat your flock to check its spreading. 
Cleanse the house in which the disease appears as 



76 Breeding and Management of Poultry^ 

thoroughly as you would a dwelling that had been 
visited by small pox. 

DIPTHEEIA. 

We give to this new and very fatal disease the 
above name on account of its symptoms. 

8ymptoms. — The face and throat become exceed- 
ingly red and inflamed; so much so, that if cold 
water is applied it will evaporate in steam on ac- 
count of the heat produced by the inflammation. 
Six hours after this feverish appearance in the throat 
and face, the throat becomes coated with a yellow- 
ish leathery lining, which may be removed by 
putting down the throat a compressed sponge, 
liberating it and withdrawing it when it will take up 
this coating, leaving the surface of the throat a 
whitish red, thickly studded with minute raw spots 
from which this poisonous fungus growth seems to 
exude. If the throat be left without sponging out 
more than six hours, the coating will adhere to the 
throat in the same manner as the canker does in 
roup. 

Diarrhoea attends the disease, of a like character 
to that described in cholei'a, the discharges resem- 
bling a mixture of oil, snufi" and chrome green paint. 



or Tliorough-hreds for Practical Use. 11 

Exhaustion is very great, so much so that we have 
given a cock of twelve pounds weight, two ounces of 
brandy with two ounces of milk in the morning and 
he showed no evidence of intoxication whatever. 

Treatment, — Steam the head and throat with hot 
water to which a little carbolic acid has be^n added, 
and sponge the throat as described in roup, also 
gargle the throat with a strong solution of potash. 
(We would obtain from our family physician the 
same gargles as used for diptheria.) 

We have used muriate tincture of iron, touched 
on the red spots in the throat with a camel's hair 
brush, whicli seemed to burn them over and check 
the leathery fungus growth spoken of. Three grains 
of hyposulphite of soda in milk in the morning, and 
three grains of quinine in milk in the evening, toge- 
ther with occasional doses of brandy and raw eggs 
were used to sustain the life of the fowls while suf- 
fering from the disease. 

Usually in three days there will be a decided 
change for the better, or death will ensue. 

When the eruption we have called chicken pox 
accompanied the disease it seemed to act as a 
counter irritant and more fowls recovered when thus 



78 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

afflicted, than when troubled with the throat disease 
alone. 

In the light of our experience we should not try 
to save a single specimen but should kill and bury 
them at once, and attend to the sanitary condition 
of the remainder of the flock. 

The use of Fowler's Solution will be found quite 
as beneficial, (and in the height of the disease, more 
so,) as the hyposulphite of soda. One drop morn- 
ing and evening is sufficient. Should this disease 
visit one in the form of an epidemic it would ^be no 
less, and we are fearful, much more fatal than 
chicken cholera. 

BUMBLE FOOT. 

This disease is in very many cases caused by 
carelessness. Flying down from high roosts to a 
floor which is always more or less covered by small 
gravel stones, results in bruises that are precisely 
like what we usually call " Stone Galls." 

The flesh of the foot being so tough, the puss can- 
not escape, therefore if not attended to, it must 
congeal, and an ungainly troublesome foot be the 
result. 



or TJiorough-hredsfor Practical Use, 79 

The fowl goes lame, and careless of its comfort, 
we in nine cases in ten fail to investigate in time to 
prevent serious trouble. When discovered before 
the puss congeals, lance the swelling at the rear of 
the foot, and the pressure upon it in walking, will 
press the puss out and there will be a much smaller 
callous than if allowed to settle down of its own 
accord. 

We have treated cases by making an incision in 
front and rear of foot, and those on shank by open- 
ing at top and bottom, and by the use of a syringe 
and a solution of carbolic acid, of one part of acid 
to ten parts of water, cleanse them thoroughly when 
they all heal up. 

In most cases we are not aware of the trouble till 
the puss is congealed, when it is almost impossible 
to press it out unless we take with it some portion of 
the layers of the foot, which would be worse for the 
fowl than to use a strong liniment to take out the 
soreness, and let the inflammation settle down into 
a corn. 

When the swellings are upon the shank or knee- 
joints wliich are generally the result of rheumatism, 
or gout, the fowl may as well go to the block, for it 
is a doubtful policy to breed from such a specimen. 



80 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

But some have a mania for doctoring, in which 
case use strong liniment, and bind the shanks and 
joints in leaves or bulbs of the skunk cabbage, and 
give internally, one drop, morning and night, of 
"Fowler's Solution" for a month, or bromide of 
potash, three gi*ains per day until the trouble is 
cured. 

Bumble foot may be prevented in a great degree 
by providing low roosts and keeping the floor of the 
fowl-house covered three inches deep with loamy 
sand, which costs less than to doctor fowls for the 
want of it. 

THE EED SPIDER LOUSE. 

This pest is the scourge of the poultry-house, and 
the source of more trouble and annoyance than any 
other hindrance to poultry keeping. The quarters 
often become literally alive with them before the 
breeder is aware of their presence. They sap the 
life blood from the fowls and reduce to skeletons 
and debilitate a flock to such an extent, as to make 
the season unprofitable. Working only in the night, 
they escape notice and have things their own way. 

Fowls that are sitting upon eggs are generally the 
greatest sufferers , for these lice instinctively seek 



or Tliorough-hreds for Practical Use. 81 

out such hens as are about to hatch their broods, 
and many a hen sacrifices her life to her mother- 
hood. 

In this case the hen becomes sallow in face and 
comb — actually bloodless, the lice having consumed 
the blood to such an extent as to cause death, and 
many fowls, whose deaths have been attributed to 
disease, have been murdered by these pests. 

The quarters should be constantly watched, and 
all the cracks and knots, on or about the roosts, 
saturated with coal tar and kerosene oil, or carbolic 
acid. The houses must be kept free from them, for 
the exhaustive influence of these maurauders not 
only entails the loss of blood to the fowls, but by 
reducing their strength, renders the flock more 
liable to the diseases we have described. 

It is therefore the best and surest step toward 
warding off disease, to have an absolutely clean 
poultry-house. If from one to three pounds of sulphur 
be mixed with the loamy sand and gravel covering the 
floor, in which the fowls may dust themselves, and 
kerosene oil used as described, the fowls occasionally 
dusted while on their roosts with a dredging box 
filled with sulphur and Persian insect powder, or 
carbolic powder, their quarters will soon be cleansed. 



§2 Breeding and Management of Poultry f 

Cleanliness coupled with Judicious feeding is what 
makes fowls profitable* So great a nervous irritant 
are these species of vermin, that in two flocks 
equally well fed, the flock which occupies quarters 
infested with lice will not lay at all, while those 
free from this annoyance will lay nearly every day. 
This fact proves them to be an expensive enemy to 
the poulterer. 

We do not go so far as some writers, and say that 
all disease is caused by lice, but will say that many 
a fowl would not have sufiered disease, were it not 
for this barn or spider louse. Breeders, look for 
them at all times. Do not wait for them to make 
themselves known, and force their acquaintance 
upon you. 



I*A.RT VI. 



SPECIFIC FOOD FOR FOWLS, 



A few words upon the use of the several condi- 
ments advertised for fowls or egg production may 
not prove amiss in this work. 

In most cases, where these condiments are needed, 
the breeder is troubled to obtain a variety of food 
for his flock. We have demonstrated the necessity 
of the daily use of flesh, vegetable and grain food, 
and where the meat and vegetable elements are 
lacking, their constituent parts have to be sup- 
plied in a concentrated form. Thus sulphur and 
iron become a necessity, and want of time to supply 
in their natural form all the elements of food that 
are necessary, has caused a large demand for these 
specific foods and condiments for fowls. Therefore 
a word of direction for their use will prove advan- 
tageous. 



84 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

Of the many kinds now in use, it is safe to say 
that in all are found nearly the same ingredients, — 
the quantity of each in the compounding, being the 
greatest difference in them. These condiments and 
Qgg foods should be carefully administered. No 
general rule can be followed. One should begin 
with less than directed, and increase the quantity 
until the desired result is accomplished. 

We have, in testing some of the Qgg foods, given 
them as directed, and forced some of the fowls to lay 
three soft shelled eggs in a single night, two hens 
side by side producing ^yq such eggs in a night. 
It is evident then, that in such doses the food be- 
comes abortive. 

Breeding fowls should not be allowed to lay more 
than one hundred eggs in the six months termed the 
breeding season, and if they are found to be falling 
off from that ratio, the food may be used to stimulate 
them to a natural produ-ction, or over fat fowls may 
be induced to lay more freely by its use, and their 
fat reduced to some purpose. 

Fowls kept to produce eggs for the market, may 
be fed upon this food more freely until they are 
forced up to their full constitutional limit, and when 
moulting time arrives, they may be killed and 



or TJiorough-bredsfor Practical Use. 85 

marketed for poultry. Birds thus forced will gen- 
erally moult slowly, and fail to lay till the following 
spring, which would make it more profitable to 
replace them with young stock that will stand the 
use of the food, and pay a profit on its use. 

To be able to use fowls for a series of years, the 
eg^ production should be the result of proper food. 
We have had our attention directed to a preparation 
called "Animal Meal," composed of fresh meat, 
fresh bone, and carbonized grain, which to our 
mind is a desirable food for fowls. We are all 
aware of the healthful properties of charcoal for 
fowls, and especially for fattening turkeys for the 
market. 

The carbonizing of the grain gives all the prop- 
erties of charcoal, while it retains all the nutriment 
of the grain, and being ground into a meal with the 
meat and bone, preserves them sweet for general 
use. Thus we have a feed which, if mixed in the 
ratio of one part animal meal, three parts bran, and 
three parts corn-meal, or with six or eight times 
its bulk of meal or coarse food, and made into a 
warm mash for the morning meal, is highly nutri- 
tious, and yet as cheap as ordinary grain. 



S6 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

Its use in conjunction with the chemical egg pow- 
ders would augment the influence of both, and the 
fowls could be forced to their utmost limit. In 
feeding these stimulants the Tegetable diet must not 
be neglected. 

In leaving the subject in the hands of our readers^ 
we hope they will not condemn > until they have first 
put the suggestions herein contained into practice, 
when we shall feel that they, like the author, will 
have accomplished good results* 



APPENDIX, 



HENBY F, FELCH'S POULTRY-HOUSE, 

(see rRONTISPIECE.) 



We give as a frontispiece the €ut of a poultry- 
house erected by H. F. Felch which is peculiarly 
adapted to the needs of the poultry breeder. 

For the benefit of those who would like to erect 
a handsome, durable, and convenient poultry-house, 
we give its dimensions, also a plan of the ground 
floor, and second story. 

FIRST STORY — 40 feet X 20 feet. 











1 






A 




D 


c 


c 
















B 


B 





S8 Breeding and Management of Poultry, 

A, entry and grain room, 10 x 20 feet. B B 
rooms 10 x 10 feet, far breeding stock. Q G 2^ room 
each for pullets and cockerels — general stock* JD 
stairway to second story. 

SECOND STORY. 





9 


9 


9 


9 


9 




/ 
























ft 


































/ 




/ 




f 




e 



E store TOQm.—ffff four rooms for sitting hens 
or hens and chickens, g g g g g ^^^ small rooms for 
single cocks, or for sitting hens, h passage. 

The form and general appearance of the buildings 
is shown in the cut. The partitions are made of 
wire netting, giving a roomy, pleasing appearance, 
as well as affording light and ventilation. 

We think the building would be improved by 
slightly increasing its height — -say to 12 feet in the 
posts, and inserting double windows in the gables, 
which would give a window in each of the large 
rooms of the second story. 



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